A question: do hitmen, hired, professional assassins, really exist outside of Hollywood? There are countless movies (and computer games too) featuring these darker versions of James Bond, killing for money, but do people like this really exist?

I mean, hired thugs and gang goons could be considered hitmen, but I mean anything closer to what we see on the big screen.

If they don't exist, why not? Killing for no motive besides money, especially if you're good at it, would probably offer little chance of getting caught for big (monetary) rewards. Seems to me lots of people would jump at that chance.

Killing for no motive besides money, especially if you're good at it, would probably offer little chance of getting caught for big (monetary) rewards. Seems to me lots of people would jump at that chance.

If professional assassination is seemingly so ludicrous and low-risk, how come we don't see hundreds of stories every day along the lines of "wealthy man found assassinated; no suspects" and "random store owner assassinated; no suspects"? How many murders every year are done professionally and with no motives between killer and killee?

If professional assassination is seemingly so ludicrous and low-risk, how come we don't see hundreds of stories every day along the lines of "wealthy man found assassinated; no suspects" and "random store owner assassinated; no suspects"?

But see, in the latter case, that happens all the time, so it NEVER gets reported. That's EXACTLY what people who hire killers generally want: for it to go unnoticed in a sea of random crime. After all, we CAN'T know how many deliberate murders go unsolved because it's disguised as a suicide, accident, or random robbery. So I don't know if "lack of publicity" is a good indicator when one reason to go the hired killer route IS lack of publicity.

If professional assassination is seemingly so ludicrous and low-risk, how come we don't see hundreds of stories every day along the lines of "wealthy man found assassinated; no suspects" and "random store owner assassinated; no suspects"? How many murders every year are done professionally and with no motives between killer and killee?

Last week I was sitting as an independent on an interview panel with the Police Service. Twice during the day there were discussions about different cases involving hired killers, only one of which was solved. After doing these interviews I was amazed at what the police intelligence analysts can work out from phone records, financial statements, rental records, property ownership etc.

It would seem that one of the reasons you don't see too many "store owner assassinated - no suspects" stories is that they might be more likely to be "Vinny (The Chimp) Barberino missing, presumed dead" on the FBI organization chart - it's either a different kind of news story or not the sort of thing one would necessarily file a missing persons report on. To make it worth the fee for the kind of highly skilled professional you're talking about, it seems like you'd probably know already that you were in a high risk profession, as it were.

Only in his early thirties he got killed somewhere (I forget where) in eastern Europe c.1996 when an assassination went wrong. He got his man - some textbook mafioso type IIRC - but the bodyguards chased, caught, and killed him on the spot.

People down the local pub were a bit shocked to say the least when they heard about it and found out what that nice young chap actually did for a living. According to his widow he'd promised her that was going to be his last job before changing vocation entirely. Instead of which she took him home in a box.

Of course there are hitmen. I think the question you are asking is if there are really hitmen in the Golgo-13/Leon/Scaramanga/Mechanic style. Within organized crime, the tendency is for matters to be handled "in house" by members of the criminal organization itself. Inside the organization, there are often members who specialize, to some extent, in "wet work." Research "Murder Inc." for examples. Here in the Pittsburgh area, the mob had an "enforcer" named "Umbrella Jake." Whether these people are what you would consider remotely James Bondish is debatable.
Outside of organized crime, human life is cheap. Right around here, in a blighted Western Pennsylvania mill town, you can hire a couple crackheads to beat or kill somebody astonishingly cheaply. They're pretty far from James Bond too, but they are definitely hit men.
That brings us to government assassins. Presumably, there may still be some licensed to kill agents out there. In recent decades, though, the tendency was to hire local talent through a subcontractor i.e. organized crime. Among other things, it's better to do it that way for the sake of maintaining deniability.

Many times there are "amateur" hitmen. Common criminals approached by wives that want to cash in their husband's life insurance. (Happened recently over here).

In the poorer and more agricultural north of Brazil the "pistoleiros" are a well known problem. They even have different prices according to the political importance of the target. Simple farmers are cheap. Union leaders and Priests are expensive.

__________________
Amy--Maybe I'm the Antichrist. Mayhem is my deal.
Shelley--That would explain it, but you don't have a tail.
Amy--Does the Antichrist have a tail?
Shelley--1) Has a tail. 2) Shifty eyes. 3) When they wee, it comes out black.

Yeah, I meant hitman in the more professional sense, not encompassing some crackhead getting paid five bucks to stab a bum in his sleep because he stole Toothless Joe's matress.

I imagine there would be good money in it though. For example, what if the CEO of one software giant saved his pennies and hired someone to cut the brakes on the car, or poison the drink of the CEO of an opposing software giant. The chances of the hitman himself getting caught would be pretty slim if he was smart enough, and I'm sure they could figure out a system so the transfer of money would leave no trace of suspicion.

Or maybe I'm giving police and federal agents too little credit. If it was so easy, you'd have the bodies of lawyers, stock brokers, judges, CEOs and politicians filling the streets.